The right to practise one’s religion

It must have been some 35 years ago when I rented myself my first flat. A horrible and dark, damp, ground floor flat in Mosta’s main street.  

No natural light, just a minuscule yard at the back surrounded by high buildings. To make matters far worse, the apartment above was the meeting place for a Christian group and every single night until the early hours of the morning, they would gather to sing folk songs extolling their faith in Jesus.  

Before the singing, there were bouts of ear-splitting screams and shouts in the name of Jesus Christ. “Yeeess, Jesus” that and “Yessss Jesus” this.  It was simply unbearable.  But it was Christian and Jesus-driven so no one complained. Not I, nor the neighbours.

When I was younger, and I practically lived in Brared Street in Birkirkara, I could not help trying to understand why all the unruly boys from the town would gather on the street facing the M.U.S.E.U.M (Society for Christian doctrine) playing and shouting and running around in the street until some well shaven adult in sandals with a well ironed white shirt and pastel coloured trousers tucked up well above the crotch would call out at them to stop it and come in.

That happened every single day.

That is not all, in honour of the saints, and religious icons, I have been fortunate enough to live in the perfect triangle of fireworks factories, be it for San Bastjan, St Helen, Maria Bambina, Santa Marija, Our Saviour or San Mikiel, and rest assured that for at least seven to eight weeks of the year the airspace around Naxxar is a perfect replica of the airspace around Aleppo in Syria.

Until 1am, with no sign of respect for the new-born or elderly residents, the sky would be blasted with petards and fireworks displays and rock every decibel there is to rock to celebrate religious feasts.

Obviously the reader is asking, what the heck am I trying to get at or say.

And obviously the reason for this convoluted introduction is the decision taken by the St Paul’s Bay local council not to wave a green card for a Muslim praying space in a garage in their community.

Graziella Galea, the PN mayor and daughter of former PN minister Censu Galea, spearheaded the objection backed by the local council members, including the Labour reps.

In another European country such an outcome would only happen where the far right is in power, or the fascists are elected.

Here in Malta the whole friggin country appears to be on the political right and we are only tolerant to diversity because we are obliged to be.

Now Graziella Galea may not have read our Constitution, which states that although the religion of the State is Roman Catholic we are to allow for the religious expression of all creeds as long as this is carried out in a peaceful manner.

When it comes to creed and diversity, decisions cannot be left to the narrow mindedness of a local council. Local councils look no further than the interests of their residents, who with all due respect would never object if the garage served the interest of a party of Christian zealots waving their hands in the air supported by guitars and non-stop clapping.

It is in this context that the local council decision is wrong. Because and surely, local councils across the country apply the same yardstick when it comes to Muslims praying in our backyard.

We had better get used to it, because this is a reality that we have to accept if we are Europeans in Europe with a diverse religious foundation, and not only Roman Catholicism.

It is also unacceptable that our Constitution continues to state that we have one religion. It goes against the grain of a Western Democracy. It reminds me of Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Iran, and of course Sudan. 

If Graziella Galea lived in France, she could easily embrace Marine Le Pen, the leader of the National Front. I am not too sure she would mind. She has done nothing different from what Le Pen has done.  She would have been ridiculed by Charlie Hebdo and taken to task by free-thinking intellectuals and journalists. And yet here, no one has lifted a finger, raised an eyebrow or expressed an opinion.

Ray Tabone, a Labour councillor and once one of Lorry Sant’s soldiers went further. “It is my personal opinion that the council should have nothing to do with finding a solution for a prayer site,” Tabone said. “St Paul’s Bay is a very multicultural town, we cannot accommodate every single community.”

The local council decision will move Muslims underground, they will be forced to pray in secret locations. Just like the Christians did thousands of years ago when they were persecuted by Nero.

Comparisons are odious when they are wrong, in this case the comparison is right.

Can anyone reconcile this thought?  Having people praying in secrecy because they have no right to do so in a public place is lunacy at its best.

How short sighted can a mayor and her councillors be?

What does Simon Busuttil think?

St Paul’s Bay is a community with so many different nationalities and creeds, that the council should really wake up to this new reality in their neighbourhood. Muslims, and they include Maltese citizens, should perhaps start being represented in local councils. But I guess most of them do not even have a vote.

But then politicians, and I am referring here to Muscat, Busuttil, Cassola and property developer Marlene Farrugia, are more interested in giving the vote to an immature 16 year old who does not even know Malta has a democracy, let alone a Constitution.   

It is high time that journalists and free thinkers speak up. If they do not, politicians will simply flow with the crowd and repeat like parrots what people want them to say.

Perhaps I am asking for too much. Perhaps this is a village surrounded by a vast sea populated by inward looking people who believe that they are at the centre of the Universe and the last bastion of Christianity.

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And if there is another taster for the Maltese it must be their innate ability to forget that they are as guilty and wrong as the people they accuse of being wrong.

I am pointing a finger at those who preach at the lack of transparency and good governance when they themselves are in the soup together with the so-called culprits.

It is thanks to the greater ignorance of the average electorate that many politicians and political animals get away with murder.

It is just preposterous that someone who has a vested interest can stand up and shoot at the very same thing that he or she has an interest in.

I am referring here to those lawyers and financial advisers or accountants who seek to give the impression that they are purer and more virginal than their target. Only to discover that they act in the service of the person or persons or adversaries that they publicly persecute.  

It only becomes worse when you read newspaper reports that specifically leave out particular facts and people to protect the anonymity of those who are as culpable as those targeted.

I guess their names will have to appear in ‘Saying it as it is’ Volume 2.